Mark Brown's Web Platform Blog : image updates

Purchase UltraCam Images for Offline Use

mjbrown — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:47:42 GMT

We’ve recently opened a reseller channel to offer our high-resolution UltraCam imagery for offline applications.

Why is VE licensing imagery for offline use?

Our hi-resolution UltraCam ortho imagery is prized for GIS, urban planning, engineering and other applications that are often performed in offline desktop environments, yet our existing VE offerings prohibit any offline use of our data. By offering our data in an offline mode, we complement our online VE web service offerings and increase Microsoft and VE brand awareness worldwide.

How is this Being Done?

Our resellers, MapMart.com and i-cubed LLC will host the data and provide sales, marketing and fulfillment services, and both are just now bringing the VE data portal sites fully online. Both are top-notch companies with proven leadership in the geodata markets, and we’re excited to have them lead our channel sales.

What’s Available and Who Needs it?

Currently we have over 200 cities of color airborne imagery collected at 6” nominal resolution, averaging less than two years old. The 6” spatial resolution rivals any large-scale commercial source today, and our newest processing techniques produce ortho mosaics with almost no building lean in the image- invaluable for unobstructed views into areas with tall buildings, etc. As Microsoft acquires and processes imagery for more cities around the world, the archive is expected to grow substantially. This imagery is invaluable for urban planners, GIS analysts, and the prosumer geospatial market. We expect municipalities, engineering firms, emergency response agencies, and utilities to be core customers.

PS: I checked and we are holding off on onboarding any new resellers for the next 6 months so for all of you who want to be resellers just hang tight.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,UltraCam

Virtual Earth Imagery Update – July 2008

mjbrown — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:54:56 GMT

Chris has the details on our most recent imagery update. It’s a small release but if you live in Belgium Denmark, Spain and a few other countries there are some significant updates here. Check it out on Chris’ blog.

Happy mapping…

Hey when are you updating the aerial images for my house?

mjbrown — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:14:21 GMT

I get this question all the time from people I bump into or otherwise talk to during the course of my day. Every time I get this question I usually respond with,

Yes, we’ll have updated imagery in your area by, Ladies and Gentlemen, THIS IS A WOOKIE.

The ~~Wookie~~ Chewbacca defense generally works very well. Most either look confused and walk away muttering something or they laugh and then quickly say, “Wait a minute. HUH?”

Seriously though it’s extremely difficult to predict exactly when we’ll have an updated image of your house. We do refresh some imagery like our Birds Eye or oblique imagery roughly every couple of years and our orthogonal imagery gets updated on a slightly more varied schedule but it really depends on a number of factors including: population density, rate of change for a particular area, geo-political issues can also play a part, and finally, good luck with the weather cooperating.

So with all those considerations its impossible to give an accurate answer and what I’m left with is the ~~Wookie~~ Chewbacca Defense. But rest assured we are trying are best to be more predictable in this area.

Edit: Sorry for calling this the Wookie defense originally. I have been severely corrected by the community.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,UltraCam